Dissertation

I once asked a Chilean friend what she felt was the main difference between Chilean education philosophy and ours. This particular friend had the unique experience of attending Chilean schools for half of her life before transferring into our small American MK school in Santiago when I was also a student there. Although she knew little English when she arrived at the school, she graduated with fluency in both languages and is now a successful wife, mom and career woman who works in a challenging international setting because of it.

Interestingly, one of the main differences my friend noted between educational philosophies was that Chilean schools require more discourse and interaction on the part of the students. And so far, all three of my kids have indeed encountered that in their respective classrooms. Last semester, Eva prepared a presentation about the profession she hoped carry out in the future (not surprisingly, "artist" was her choice!) She was supposed to prepare a visual for the class, a written assignment for the teacher, and dress accordingly on the day of her oral presentation. Although it wasn't required, to our surprise most of the other students also prepared something to give to each classmate about their topic. It was a big deal!

Today Owen is scheduled to present a "dissertation" to his pre-school classmates on the subject of Elephants. He is four years old and this is the second or third dissertation he's been asked to prepare already. My one complaint is that we all know that at least in pre-school, it is Mommy who does most of the work! But on the other hand, he does get excited about showing off to his friends and theoretically he should be learning some great communication skills. So on his way out the door this morning, I snapped these pictures of our little motivational speaker: